Denny Cline

Bryce Alderton

Dennis Cline admits he was obsessed with basketball.

He played on Newport Harbor High’s basketball team and dreamed of

playing collegiately, but when he played against Santa Monica High in

a volleyball game for the Newport Harbor High club team, his future

changed forever.

UCLA’s legendary men’s volleyball coach Al Scates recruited Cline

to play volleyball for the Bruins, and volleyball is the reason Cline

is being inducted along with eight other Bruins into the school’s

Hall of Fame at ceremonies Friday and Saturday.

This past spring Cline received a letter from then-Athletic

Director Peter Dalis telling him of the honor. Cline admits he was

“shocked.”

“When I first opened it I thought they were asking for money,”

said the 48-year-old Santa Monica resident, who now is a lawyer for

the film and television industry. “I am very proud and somewhat

flabbergasted to be selected for this honor. It’s really a reflection

of the strength of the program, we had some very good teams.”

Standing at 6-foot-3 and a middle blocker, Cline played on UCLA’s

national championship teams of 1974-76. He was captain of the ’76

team and gained All-American honors while at UCLA.

In Scates’ 39 years at UCLA as head coach, his teams have won 18

national championships, an NCAA record for a single-sport coach and

his teams have compiled an 1,019-167 (.862) record.

Scates has coached 48 first-team National Collegiate Athletic

Association (NCAA) and 26 United States Volleyball Association

All-Americans, among them Cline.

Cline’s father, Neil Cline, was a defensive end on UCLA’s football

team in the early ‘50s, and contributed to the establishment of high

school boys volleyball at Newport Harbor.

Neil, along with Gene Popko, who lived in Los Angeles in the early

‘70s, formed a boys volleyball league in 1972 made up of six high

school teams from Orange County and six teams from Los Angeles who

played one another in what came to be known as the beginning of

organized high school volleyball in Orange County and L.A.

“When I was at Harbor guys didn’t play volleyball,” Cline said.

“In the ‘60s and ‘70s boys volleyball was a countercultural sport

played by guys who weren’t the conformists of the world. (My dad) was

instrumental in starting the league, but we were truthfully riding

the cusps of something he helped lay the groundwork for.”

Cline played on Newport’s team as a senior in 1972, and he said

the league rapidly expanded from 12 to 24 teams, then to more than

50.

Needless to say Cline never envisioned himself playing for Scates’

heralded program. While attending Newport, Cline also competed on the

school’s track and field team and was the salutatorian of the Class

of ’72 before attending UCLA.

“I was very excited when I was recruited by UCLA,” said Cline, who

has quite a lineage of family who have attended the Westwood campus.

Dennis’ mother Pat also attended UCLA as did Dennis’ grandmother,

his great aunt and uncle.

After graduating from UCLA in 1977 with a degree in political

science, Cline stayed on as an assistant coach to Scates until 1984,

then entered Boalt Hall to attain his law degree from UC Berkeley.

As an assistant to Scates, Cline realized the brains behind the

successful coach.

“I understood just how good he was,” Cline said. “He was a master

of getting the most from the talent he has on the floor. He was the

best coach for the guys on the floor.”

The 19th Annual UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction

Ceremony kicks off Friday with a reception and Hall of Fame open

house at the J.D. Morgan Intercollegiate Athletics Center on the UCLA

campus at 5:30 p.m. with a dinner to follow at 7 p.m. at the James

West Alumni Center.

He will then be introduced, along with the eight athletes that

include professional golfer Duffy Waldorf and ex-NBA player Don

MacLean, during halftime of the UCLA-Oregon football game Saturday at

the Rose Bowl in Pasadena..

The 2002 inductee lives in Santa Monica with wife, Kerri and their

three boys, Neil, 15, Kenny, 11, and David, 9.

Neil plays volleyball on a club team while Kenny has gotten into

skateboarding after giving up soccer. David has got all the athletic

skills and ability, Cline said.

“I know nothing about skateboarding but they all seem darn good at

it,” Cline said.

Cline’s brother, Terry, and sister, Susie, both graduated from

Newport Harbor High. Susie lives on Lido Isle and Cline’s mother

lives on Balboa.